Example teacher training dissertation topic 10:

A survey of the problems facing trainee teachers wishing to specialise in the post-compulsory level curriculum.

Within the broader secondary school curriculum there is a number of subjects that are not usually studied until A-level. These include disciplines such as Law, Psychology, and Government and Politics. This can create a number of problems for trainee teachers who wish to specialise in such subjects. For instance, in a number of Local Education Authorities (such as Sunderland) all post-sixteen courses are taught not within schools but within colleges (the maintained secondary schools within the LEAs finishing at sixteen). This means that trainee teachers who then wish to practice these subjects in their careers must apply for jobs without any subject-specific classroom based practice in these disciplines. This dissertation considers whether it should become mandatory for all secondary school trainee teachers to undertake practice in either sixth-form classes or sixth-form colleges, in view of the requirement that all eighteen year olds must stay within education or training from 2013.

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Aiello, M. and Watson, K. (2007). ‘An alternative approach to CPD: An evaluation of the impact on individual and institutional development of an action learning programme run in partnership by an HE institution (HEI) and a sixth form college (SFC)’. In, Townsend, T. and Bates, R. (eds), Handbook of teacher education: Globalisation, standards, and professionalism in times of change. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 457-464.
• Foskett, N., Dyke, M. and Maringe, F. (2008). ‘The influence of the school in the decision to participate in learning post‐16’, British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 34(1), pp. 37-61.
• Fry, H., Ketteridge, S. and Marshall, M. (2003). A handbook for teaching and learning in higher education: Enhancing academic practice (2nd edn). Abingdon: Routledge.